President Joe Biden has a new plan to keep people alive in blistering heat: Require water and rest breaks for some 36 million U.S. workers. The nation’s first federal safety standard would cost $7.5 billion — a fraction of the estimated $100 billion that heat exposure cost the U.S. economy in 2020. The proposed rule aims to reduce worker injuries and deaths from one of the most dangerous climate impacts. Heat kills more people every year than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined. But Biden’s proposal — which wouldn’t be implemented until 2026 — could be swiftly undone, writes Ariel Wittenberg. If former President Donald Trump wins November’s election, he could roll back not just the worker safety standards but also Biden’s broader plan to adapt to rising temperatures and climate-fueled disasters. That includes a new rule requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency to factor in future flooding for any federally funded construction project. FEMA is also announcing nearly $1 billion in grants for over 650 projects to help communities protect against natural disasters, including extreme heat, storms and flooding, Biden said at a news conference today announcing his proposal. “Ignoring climate change is deadly and dangerous and irresponsible,” he said. The costs of extreme weather are only growing. Last year, the largest weather-related disasters cost over $90 billion in damage and drove nearly 2.5 million people out of their homes, according to federal figures. Temperatures this summer have already broken records in New England and elsewhere. Heat has caused emergency room visits to spike and killed a construction worker in Rhode Island who collapsed on the job last week. For decades, workers have called on the federal government to protect them as high temperatures killed an estimated 815 laborers between 1992 and 2017 and seriously injured some 70,000 more, according to federal estimates. The federal safety standard would require employers to offer safety measures such as providing water, a cool place to rest and 15-minute paid rest breaks on dangerously hot days. Employers would also be required to ease new workers into hot jobs to help their bodies adjust. Industry groups have already come out against the proposal, with the National Association of Manufacturers posting on social platform X that the proposal "adds to the regulatory onslaught facing manufacturers in America." The group called for “a heat standard that provides greater flexibility.”
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